OTTAWA
The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal from a couple ordered to pay British Columbia's foreign buyer tax on the full value of a Richmond apartment they purchased together.
The court dismissed the application for leave to appeal on Thursday, ending the couple's legal challenge.
The B.C. Court of Appeal had previously dismissed their case earlier this year.
The couple, Canadian citizen Chia-Wen Hsia and her foreign partner Li-Yuan Chuang, bought the apartment in 2014 under a presale contract.
They registered ownership with 95 per cent in Hsia's name and five per cent in Chuang's, but an audit later found Chuang had paid 40 per cent of the purchase price.
The couple had paid the 20 per cent foreign buyer tax only on the five per cent registered to Chuang.
The B.C. Finance Ministry later assessed that the tax was "payable on the fair market value of the whole property," resulting in an additional tax bill of just over $126,000.
The couple had claimed imposing the tax on the entire value was "profoundly unfair."
Hsia told the court it was "customary in Chinese culture to pay for 'bride price' as in the husband buying a house for the wife."
"In my husband's case, he is not rich so he could only pay for part of the purchase price," Hsia is quoted as saying in the appellate ruling.
The B.C. government argued the tax rule was meant to "prevent tax avoidance by foreign investors who own beneficial interests held indirectly by others."
The three-judge panel of the Appeal Court found they could have avoided paying the tax on the property's entire value if they had registered ownership based on their contributions to the purchase price.
The appellate ruling said Chuang paid 40 per cent of the purchase price but registered only a five per cent stake in the property.
The apartment, a two-bedroom unit in the Avanti Richmond complex, was declared to have a value of $474,500 at the time of purchase.
Its most recent assessed value is $820,000.
The B.C. Supreme Court initially dismissed the couple's legal challenge in 2024.
The original B.C. Supreme Court ruling said a B.C. Finance Ministry tax analyst put the additional tax owed by the couple at just over $126,000.
The B.C. foreign buyer tax is 20 per cent of market value.
The couple's lawyer, Massao Morinaga, said they had no comment about the Supreme Court of Canada's dismissal.
He said it was the "end of the road judicially," but the current foreign buyer tax legislation is drafted in a way that "captures situations that are inequitable."
The Supreme Court of Canada's refusal to hear the appeal leaves the lower court rulings in place.
This story was written by the e2gold.ca newsroom from reporting by BNN Bloomberg and CTV News. Quotes are checked word for word against that reporting.